The packaging of small articles in small boxes presents a number of unique problems which heretofore have necessitated that these operations be performed entirely manually. The small boxes involved are used in great quantities and the tolerances in box dimensions are such that they do not lend themselves to handling by precision machinery which would align precisely a box top with a box bottom and then place the box top over the box bottom.
This is particularly true in the packaging of bookplates, which may be packed fifty to a box in quantities of several hundred thousand. In such operations loading the correct number of bookplates in each box bottom and then placing a box top over the box bottom appears deceptively simple, yet in fact it is difficult to the point that no prior art system other than a manual one appears to perform satisfactorily.
As a result of the difficulties encountered in packaging materials in small boxes in great quantities, particularly in packaging thin sheets of material such as bookplates in small boxes on a high volume basis, such packaging operations have become highly labor intensified with each of these operations being accomplished manually.